SpaceX's unmanned craft docks in space

A life-size test dummy along with a toy floats in the Dragon capsule as the capsule made orbit

Frank Williams
|
08 March, 2019, 10:55

By autonomously docking at the International Space Station, SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule has passed a crucial test as the company prepares to start flying U.S. astronauts to the ISS later this year.

If the six-day demo goes well, SpaceX could launch two astronauts this summer under NASA's commercial crew program.

"Crew Dragon" was launched on March 2nd and is an unmanned mission that will be transporting 400 pounds of "supplies and equipment to the Space Station".

SpaceX named "Ripley" after the Sigourney Weaver Character in the Alien movies. SpaceX employees at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, cheered the docking, then burst into applause again when the Dragon's latches were secured.

"We are not in a space race", he told the AP.

Even last week, two days before launch, Russian Federation still had safety concerns with the docking procedure, deputy ISS program manager Joel Montalbano said in a pre-launch briefing last week. The three astronauts of Expedition 58 - cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, American astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques - also entered Crew Dragon, which can carry up to seven astronauts. Musk continues and says "And I think it'd be pretty cool if people went to space station on an American vehicle as well".

If the spacecraft's descent proceeds in a normal regime, it will travel to the orbital outpost with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on its board in July.

In 2014, the USA space office granted contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to assume control over the task of shipping space astronauts to the space station. SpaceX's new crew capsule approaches just before docking at the International Space Station Sunday, March 3, 2019.

"Just super excited to see it", Behnken said minutes after the linkup. Crew Dragon is set to remain in orbit attached to the ISS until early Friday morning.

While most of us were asleep, SpaceX wrote history. Boeing has similar uncrewed and crewed test flights planned for April and August, respectively, for their own certification tests.

Founded by billionaire Elon Musk, SpaceX has made the trip to the ISS a dozen times since 2012, but only to bring cargo to the station.

Afterwards, they opened the hatch of the space capsule and, for the first time, penetrated its interior in space. He marvels at how the Dragon has just 30 buttons and touch screens, compared with the space shuttle cockpit's 2,000 switches and circuit breakers.

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